Uber’s new retail boss has a plan to shake up groceries in Australia

“We will make a machine recommendation to the shopper, so if the brand of yoghurt isn’t available, we will make a recommendation to say, ‘we think this is the next best one’. The customer can accept or reject that.”

Anderson is back in Australia this week meeting executives from supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, as well as a swath of new grocery and retail partners.

Uber eyes $130bn grocery market

She says the online penetration for the $130 billion Australian grocery market in Australia is still low and predicts a major step change within the next few years.

“We launched grocery and retail in 2020 and now it’s a $US7 billion business and growing at 40 per cent, year-on-year,” she says.

“In Australia, there’s a $130 billion grocery market of which $10 billion is online. We know one in seven Australians order online weekly.

“We believe this is going to be a really great market for us and not only are there great merchants to work with like Coles and Woolworths but local merchants such as FoodWorks, Drakes, Harris Farm, Spudshed and 700 other merchants across Australia.”

Anderson’s message to the supermarkets and retailers is that Uber is helping to grow the pie, rather than steal their business.

“We are seeing that about 90 per cent of the revenue being generated using Uber Eats is incremental,” she says. “It’s not cannibalising their own channels. It is a brand-new sale.”

Anderson says that is because customers typically use the app for a top-up shop. “I know personally, I top up during the week with the fresh things I want,” she says.

“Our top sellers are bananas, water, bread, roasted chicken and vegetables and then a decent amount of ice cream and candy.

“It’s a really natural compliment to our online food delivery, the first thing we saw was people ordering their pizzas and burgers and then saying, ‘I’m going to add some ice cream or alcohol into the deal’,” she says.

Careers are a team sport

Anderson says the retail offering will rapidly expand. “For instance, in our Latin countries, you can order a mattress and have it delivered to your house,” she says. Pet and baby supplies and pharmacy items are other big sellers.

Despite Uber warning at the time that Labor’s new gig laws could increase prices by up to 85 per cent, Anderson plays a straight bat on the changes. It introduced a new $2.99 charge on shopping orders less than $10 last year. But she says it is trying to strike the right balance.

“We’ve long advocated for better protections … and we also recognise there are a lot of families doing it tough right now with rising grocery prices,” she says.

“We support the recent legislation passed by the federal government paving the way for industry-wide standards,” she says. “We played a significant role in consulting throughout the reform process, so we’ll continue to work with governments and legislators but also hold ourselves accountable to a high bar because after all, we need our delivery drivers to decide to turn on the app every day.”

A move to San Francisco

The UK-born executive, who spent six years in Australia leading Uber here and in New Zealand and North Asia, moved to Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco in 2021 to lead Uber for Business and was made global head of grocery and retail this week.

“The family miss Australia. My kids consider themselves Australian,” she says.

“We miss the Tim Tams, we miss the beaches, we miss the weather, we miss the people, there’s nothing quite like an Aussie BBQ. We had to buy my kids a new puppy.

“I have a very supportive husband [James]. He’s working for World Rugby in the US now. He’s worked on the Olympics, the Rugby World Cup in London, the Commonwealth Games which brought us to Australia, which is when I joined Uber. I always say careers are a team sport. And my house is a mess.”

The significant promotion puts Anderson in the mix to possibly replace global boss Dara Khosrowshahi who has been CEO since 2017. However he remains firmly in the role after Uber reported its first-ever annual profit this year making $US1.1 billion, compared with a loss of $1.8 billion the year before, in a pivotal turning point for the business.

“We are still a disruptor even if we’re not a start-up anymore, we continue to innovate and I think that’s part of our culture and DNA,” Anderson says.